


Death and the King's Horseman

by helm



Category: Dead by Daylight (Video Game)
Genre: Ensemble Cast, Everyone Needs A Hug, Lore Exploration, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-19
Updated: 2018-09-19
Packaged: 2019-07-14 10:36:42
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,855
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16038740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helm/pseuds/helm
Summary: There is nothing in these woods except death and each other. Dwight is having to forge the longest road back from hell possible. David knows there’s strength in numbers, or at least in having someone else by your side.





	Death and the King's Horseman

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This fic is kind of like a soft love story wrapped up in my own ideas about the lore of the game and what happens to the survivors between the trials. I hope you enjoy it!
> 
> There is an explicit scene towards the end of the story, which can be safely skipped or glossed over if you'd rather avoid that. The vast majority of this story is non-explicit, but it does develop a Dwight/David relationship.

Dwight’s head snaps up when Feng and Ace come running into the clearing, back from their trial, pointing at everyone still around the campfire and yelling at them to get the cleansing site cleared. 

Nea and Bill scramble to it first, and by the time Dwight gets his head clear enough to go help, David is already limping back into the clearing, carrying Jake fireman-style over his shoulders. Both of them look ruthlessly beat up, though David always seems to, and Jake is clearly unconscious. He doesn’t stir even the slightest when Bill grabs his lower body off of David’s shoulders and the two of them bring him down to the chalk circle south of the campfire.

Once he’s placed, everyone looks expectantly at Dwight.

For some reason the cleansing is his job, since the twisted Entity that delivered them into the cursed woods decided that he should lead them out. As if he had a chance or a choice. 

He should consider himself lucky. No matter what terror befalls him in those trials, he always ends up walking back to the campfire in relatively perfect health. Everyone else keeps the scars they get, and even David and Bill grew tired of that after a time. So it’s up to him to bring the dying back to health so that they can continue alongside him in their vain journey home.

He’s never considered what would happen if he didn’t do the cleansing. One could only guess that the punishment, the trials, would get worse. And one fewer person around the campfire is one fewer person watching your back out there. It couldn’t possibly be worth losing someone.

Everyone is still looking at him while he stands there white-lipped and shaking like he always is in these moments. Nobody understands  _ just _ how hard this is, but they’re all blessedly patient. He’s saved all of them more than once, after all.

Someone breaks the silence by telling David that he should probably get his wounds cleansed too, which he scoffs at until Dwight makes direct eye contact with him. Some unspoken thought passes between them—a thought that says that things will be easier on everyone, Dwight especially, if David keeps himself healthy—and then David sits in the circle too, staring up at him.

_ Prove thyself _ , a darkened voice whispers into one ear, and Dwight kneels in front of the chalk circle, slamming his hands on the ground inside of it. The circle lights up and begins to spark, looking very similar to the generators in the trials, and then both Jake and David are covered in blinding light, causing everyone but Dwight to look away. 

Claudette finds a cold compress in one of her medkits and holds it to his forehead while he works, a small blessing amidst the brutal work of the cleansing. It feels like his own life is being stripped away in order to heal them, every single time. But he knows it’s working. Behind the light he can see their wounds healing over: the giant chainsaw scar on Jake’s chest fades away, and David’s shoulder relocates itself. He wonders if Claudette can see it too, and just looks away out of kindness.

It takes exactly ten minutes for the cleansing to complete itself, no more and certainly never any less. That would be a reprieve far too kind to be given by the Entity. As would be leaving Dwight with any energy afterwards. Instead, as the light fades off the cleansing circle and Jake begins coughing with the first gasps of new air in his lungs, Dwight’s vision falters.

Claudette instinctively moves away from him to help Jake to stand. The coughing garners the attention of the others, all anxiously sitting over by the campfire.

Unconsciousness prepares to take Dwight in return for Jake. David reaches out one hand and grasps at the front of Dwight’s shirt, pulling him close as his vision clouds over entirely. He feels himself being supported by David’s frame, and hears the gruff accent whisper “Come on, champ,” and then an unusually blissful sleep overtakes him.

//

It is dark when Dwight wakes up, as always, but he’s never kicked the demoralizing habit of searching for the sunrise. In these woods it is never dawn. He should know that by now.

Someone has miraculously managed to get him into one of the bedrolls, which is at least fifty times better than waking up from unconsciousness on the cold and itchy ground of the campsite. He can hear Jake snoring next to him, which is no surprise. He’s also not surprised to look up and see that most of the group is still up, chatting quietly at or near the campfire. They don’t sleep much these days, not naturally anyway, and not when you’ve been in the woods as long as some of them have.

Meg waves him over when she sees him leave the bedroll and start walking to the campfire. On the opposite side of the campfire from her, he spots David with a sour look on his face, clearly currently fourth in a game of cards against Ace, Feng, and Bill.

Quentin and Claudette are doing some sort of inventory on the medkits with Laurie’s semi-supervision, and Nea sits next to Meg, grinning at Dwight when he sits down with them.

“How long?” He manages to ask, throat drier and scratchier than he’d anticipated.

“About twelve hours until the next one,” Meg says, poking the campfire with a stick.

“You weren’t out for too long this time,” Nea adds, trying to lift his spirits but not entirely succeeding.

“Doesn’t make it much better,” he mumbles, wishing more than anything that there was water--that they  _ needed _ to drink, or do anything of sustenance--so he could get rid of the gravel in his throat. “More time to sit and think about hell.”

Meg frowns, but Nea actually snorts. “I know what you mean. We’re literally  _ dying _ to get out of here, but it doesn’t work. That’s definitely hell.”

There’s a piercing silence. Nea throws a branch into the campfire, but it just passes through and rolls to Dwight’s feet, not even remotely ignited or singed. Not an offering. No ongoing trial. No response from the campfire. It’s to be expected.

“I fold,” Dwight hears David say, with the expected gruffness. He stands and paces for a moment before kicking some loose rocks on the ground and moving to take a seat next to Dwight on the log. “Hey.”

“Hey, David,” Meg says, and he nods at her and Nea. He takes his time looking at Dwight for a moment, like he has something to say but can’t phrase it.

“Thanks for your help earlier,” Dwight says instead, to break the new silence. “After the cleansing.”

“I owed you. Still do, prob’ly. And I’m not the only one.”

“It’s nothing,” he says, which is a lie, because it takes  _ all _ of him to do the ritual. But only he can, and he can’t refuse. So it’s nothing. No alternative.

David scoffs, seeing right through it. “Bullshit. You looked worse comin’ out of it than I did goin’ in.” There’s another silence. Dwight hates this, how this always happens, none of them seeming able to hold much of a conversation without hitting awkward topics. Part of the horrors of being here. “It always that bad?”

He asks like he’s never watched Dwight collapse after the ritual before, but Dwight knows all of them do. “Yeah,” he says, truthfully now.

“Tough guy,” David says after a moment, more out into space than towards Dwight. He stands and walks away from the logs, pushing over to the edge of the clearing and laying down by himself.

Dwight surprisingly finds himself wishing they had talked more.

//

When the roar of the campfire grows deafeningly loud multiple hours later, the group bands together near the cleansing circle. The four ritual pedestals apparate into existence, and from the campfire the sparks begin to spell names onto them: first Claudette, then Laurie, then Quentin, then Feng.

They have but moments to prepare, and the atmosphere is always as tense for those who remain unpicked as those about to be thrown into the gauntlet. Feng doesn’t even have the opportunity to growl about pulling back-to-back trials before Claudette throws one of the better medkits into her arms as an unspoken apology.

“Let’s take this to home turf,” Laurie says, tossing one of her seemingly endless copies of her father’s Strode Realty keys into the campfire, which sends out a thunderclap in acceptance of her offering.

Half a minute passes, and then the four are called to the woods by the darkness, with no choice but to listen.

Dwight feels a little less uneasy than usual; Claudette and Quentin are both very adept at keeping their friends healthy. If he’s lucky, there will be no need for a cleansing tonight.

...

He is not lucky, and neither were his friends.

Laurie is the only one who comes back unscathed. The sacrificed, unconscious bodies of the other three are delivered back to the campfire by the shadowy tendrils of the Entity moments after her return from the woods.

Bill and Nea wordlessly set up the cleansing site again. Meg comforts Laurie, who speaks of the terrible ghostly nurse who was not hindered by the relative safety of the walls of Haddonfield.

“You gonna be okay this time?” David’s voice asks from behind him, startling him slightly.

“I never am, really,” Dwight says, wringing his hands. David frowns, clearly unsure of what to say back to that. “But thanks. I mean, I’ve gotta do it. We can’t lose them.”

“Right,” David says, looking off into the distance now. 

Conversation over, then. Dwight feels uncomfortable, but he moves over to the cleansing site and gets to work. 

The circle is graciously large, and so all three of their downed friends fit inside, meaning that Dwight doesn’t have to attempt this twice tonight. He doesn’t think he could. He’s never had to, thankfully. But it’s rough seeing Claudette in the circle. It’s rare for her to need saving, she’s usually so careful, and she’s usually the one with the right amount of medical knowledge needed to keep him going through the cleansing. It’s never a good time when he has to do this on his own.

When the ritual starts, everyone gives him his space tonight except Laurie, who hovers nearby like a repentant, guilty child.

Surprisingly, thirty seconds in, the cold compress finds its way to his forehead again, just like it always does when Claudette is there to help. Dwight almost loses his concentration as he flinches, but a rough hand also steadies him at his back as he kneels. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees David kneeling next to him, averting his gaze from the bright light by staring at Dwight and moving the cold compress around his forehead.

“Taken enough punches to know what good one of these things does, y’know,” he whispers, though he knows that Dwight can’t answer back. “You’re a miracle worker, pal. With you around, we’re gonna get out of this fuckin’ hellhole one day.” 

Dwight has to stop himself from swallowing hard. Is this the sort of faith everyone at the campfire puts in him? Or is this just David, rugged and brutal but surprisingly understanding. He falters slightly and has to go back to concentrating on the cleansing, multiple minutes still to go, David staying at his side and keeping him steady.

He knows that, back in the real world, David most likely would never have spared him a second glance unless he looked someone good to pick a fight with. He also knows that if the roles were reversed he’d be too cowardly to help David as he’s helping him. Some miracle worker, some  _ leader _ he is. He’d need the rest of them much more than they’d need him if not for this one opportunity to do something useful.

He wants to puke but can’t. So much of his energy is tied up in fixing the mess the entity left behind that his body won’t even react anymore. David’s hand on his back starts rubbing circles on his shirt, but it’s only a minor comfort.

Nea doesn’t know the half of it.  _ This _ is what hell really is.

David says something but Dwight doesn’t hear it.

The bright light flashes and dissipates to signal the end of the cleansing ritual, and Dwight’s vision immediately goes black. But just before he goes unconscious he feels David wrap his arms around him, and feels protected in his grasp.

//

He wakes up in the bedroll again, a distance away from the others. David sits next to him, back against a tree, tossing a stone up into the air and catching it. But vigilant, like a watch dog, he notices immediately when Dwight stirs.

“Yer up,” he says, and Dwight doesn’t know if his mind is foggy from sleep or if there’s genuine concern in the voice. “Claud was gettin’ scared.”

Dwight has to inhale and exhale deeply a few times and rub at his eyes before he can focus enough to speak to David. “How long?” His voice is scratchy and dry again, like the last time he woke up, but thankfully he manages to swallow his spit and clear his throat and the sensation goes away.

David looks away and skips the stone somewhere out into the forest. “We’ve got an hour, maybe.”

He was out for a long time then. Fuck. No rest for the cursed.

“Unlucky,” he says, half-joking but humorless. David gives him a frown, then stands and offers Dwight a hand. “I’m fine.”

“Let’s take a walk,” David says, leaving his hand outstretched, still frowning. “It’ll clear yer head.”

Dwight stays seated in the bedroll for a moment, but nods and feels the headache start pounding through, so he reaches up for David’s hand and lets himself be pulled up. There’s power in the action, and Dwight shivers slightly when staring at David. If he notices, he doesn’t say anything, but he tugs at Dwight’s wrist once before letting go of his hand and heading into the forest, away from the campfire.

Dwight’s never actually left the campfire, but he’s seen the others do so and come back without injury, so he pulls together his nerves and walks after David into the tangle of trees. Moonlight hangs above them, casting unnerving shadows everywhere, leading Dwight to hustle to stay close to David.

He wonders if he’s breathing hard or if David just knows that he’s scared, because a hand comes back for him, gripping one of his hands tight. “Stay with me,” David says, confident and protective.

“I am,” Dwight says back, hoping that his nerves don’t come across in the words. David keeps a good solid grip on him as they walk on, and Dwight finds himself blushing slightly, like a clumsy teenager being led through the forest by his braver boyfriend. Off to fool around or do something stupid or--

They emerge into a clearing, blue in the moonlight and grassy, and Dwight’s heart skips a beat. It’s the same size as the campfire clearing but completely empty, undisturbed. David stops but still holds Dwight’s hand.

“Wild, huh,” David says, half-gesturing out into the clearing and looking at Dwight. “This is as far as you can go this way. Keeps leadin’ back to the fire if you walk more.”

“Wow,” Dwight mumbles, hoping the blush on his face isn’t visible in the moonlight. “What do you think it’s for?”

“Was hopin’ you might know. Or find out.”

Right. Of course. David seems to believe that Dwight can get them out of this mess. Misplaced faith, perhaps, but it’s kind and comforting. His headache dulls into a painless occasional throb.

“You think this means there’s a path back to--” he has to swallow down the word  _ life _ \-- “the real world? Somewhere out here?”

David looks out into the trees beyond the clearing, thinking about something. He seems adamant to not let Dwight’s hand go, even absent-mindedly. “Maybe. Gotta be a way out if there’s a way in, yeah?”

It’s a simple sentiment, but it brings Dwight a clear mind and determination. His pulse quickens with the thought of freedom, of the people out there that got left behind, or that he was dragged away from.

There are people here with him who need out too, and he can help them.

David seems to read it in his eyes, because he smiles, looking vaguely shark-like but also handsome. Dwight feels something else stir in the pit of his stomach but quiets it.

“We should get back,” he says evenly, after neither of them move for a solid minute. “In case people need us. But we should come back here soon. With the others. Find out if this means something.”

A nod from David and nothing more, but his hand stays entwined with Dwight’s on the way back.

…

As they emerge back into the campfire clearing, Dwight makes the tough decision to remove his hand from David’s before either of them show signs of discomfort. If it means anything to David he doesn’t express it, but he does look at Dwight thoughtfully for a moment.

At the campfire, the rest of the group is already gathered around the cleansing circle. The fire has grown deafeningly loud once more. Another trial is to be endured.

The fire spells out Nea’s name first, which is rebuffed by a Swedish curse. The campfire doesn’t back down, but neither does Nea as she walks over to the pedestal.

David laughs for a moment, but then the fire spells out his name next to Nea’s, and he grunts. He steps away from Dwight with a small nod, Dwight too suddenly engulfed with fear to do anything back.

Meg is third to be called. She stretches by the campfire, seeming calm and focused in the face of the challenge. Leftover reflexes from her life as an athlete.

There is a brief moment of calm that edges on unsettling, the rest of the survivors getting nervous that the darkness will demand only three of them.

Dwight frowns, and comes forward to stand closer to the group.

And then his name comes out of the fire and onto the pedestal in blazing white-yellow heat. David gives him a piercing stare. Meg runs over and grabs a medkit from Claudette. Nea takes Jake’s lucky toolbox and wrench. David is spinning a flashlight in his hand now, still looking at him.

Dwight throws a tiny-but-intricate black salt statuette he found in a former trial into the campfire, which booms.

Maybe this time they’ll be lucky, he wants to think.

But now, now, now. He knows better.

//

After walking through the woods for a few minutes, they all enter a daze, and when Dwight snaps out of it after who knows how long, he finds himself under light snowfall, at the entrance to the hospital. He grimaces, as this place is winding and maze-like, though in some cases that tends to work in his favor.

There’s an exit behind him, but alas, no power as usual. Always worth checking. Maybe one day there’ll be a mistake, and they’ll all get lucky. Maybe one day they’ll get out for good.

Not likely. He moves into the hospital and down a long corridor, spotting a generator at its end. Preternatural senses tell him that Meg is nearby, but give him no indication of where David or Nea might be. She meets up with him at the generator, gives him a solid, brave nod, and they both get to work rewiring the mismatched cords that make the generator run. It’s something that comes natural inside the trials, but the knowledge seems to slip from their heads out by the campfire. It’s just one more unsettling effect of the woods.

Meg stops working suddenly and pulls at his hand, almost causing him to mix up two wires and cause the generator to sound an alarm, but he keeps his composure. She tugs him away into a side room, and moments later he begins to hear a darkly disturbed humming coming their direction. Meg’s ears must’ve been better than his, undistracted by thoughts of returning to the campfire. He has to focus.

She stays low to the ground and leads him into a room with shower stalls, where they manage to stay tucked up into a corner and as far out of sight as they possibly can be. This isn’t usually Meg’s strength, Dwight thinks, but maybe she’s learning a thing or two from Nea. They could all stand to benefit from teaching each other how they manage to survive, honestly. It should be brought up when they return.

The humming dies down after the sound of the angry woman in the hare mask takes her boot to the generator they had been working on just a minute earlier. Meg made the right call, going around her and back the way she came. She doesn’t stick around long enough to check every room of this labyrinthian hospital, let alone have time to double back.

Something in the back of Dwight’s mind tingles for a moment, and through the wall he can see the outline of David coming toward them quickly, but thankfully from the right direction, so far unchased. Dwight moves out of the stall and gestures to him.

“Good,” he says, looking between Dwight and Meg. “Wanna come with me? I found a gen that could use some more hands.” He cracks his knuckles and points over his shoulder, back the way he came.

“I’ll go finish the one we started on,” Meg says. “She just came through here—the hatchet lady. We should get something done before she comes back or finds Nea.”

“You’ll be okay by yourself?” Dwight whispers, but Meg just gives him a thumbs up, shows him her medkit, and gently pushes him towards David.

“I’ll go try and find Nea afterward. Good luck boys.”

David is more hands-on than Meg was about leading him through the tangled hallways, going as far as to actually keep hold of his wrist as he walks towards the nearby library. Dwight notices the ominous set of steps leading down to the basement as they enter the room, and gives David a concerned stare. “Are you sure we should be doing this one?”

“If we do it now, we don’t have to do it later, when she’s angrier and tryna get us down there,” comes the reply, and Dwight doesn’t want to spend precious time arguing against a valid point, so they get to work.

It’s slow work, but two pairs of hands go faster than one. Just a few seconds after they start, however, they both pick up on the deep humming of the Huntress as she nears them, and even David looks scared for a moment as they realize there aren’t many safe places to hide in the library.

But then, from far away, the sound of an alarm goes off--the shrill ding and crackle of a completed generator--and the boys hear the humming grow fainter as the vicious woman turns towards it, seeking blood. 

“That wasn’t the direction we came,” Dwight says quietly. “Must’ve been Nea.”

“Hope that toolbox of hers can block a hatchet,” David grunts, digging his fingers back into the guts of the generator and working the wires again. Dwight gives him a concerned stare, which earns him one of David’s small smirks. “Relax, pal. That girl’s better at running from bad shit than even me. Meg will get ‘er if she needs help.”

Dwight sighs, nods, and gets back to work on the generator. Just over a minute passes, and then another alarm goes off from Meg’s generator, indicating it’s been completed too.

Almost instantly, the humming comes back, and then the heartbeat starts pounding in their heads so quickly that they instantly pull off the generator, one of Dwight’s wires falling down into another in the process and causing a misfire.

Nea runs into the room suddenly, eyes wide when she sees them. “Fuck, sorry boys, she’s on me,” she swears as she charges out of the library into the hallway.

“Shit! Window, now!” David whispers frantically, pushing Dwight at the window next to him, which he scrambles over as quietly as possible. It’s not quick enough for David to get through as well before the hare-masked figure shows up in the library, aiming a hatchet at him, and so he books it off the same direction that Nea went, narrowly avoiding impact between a very sharp blade and his left shoulder.

The Huntress takes the bait and doesn’t check the window that Dwight took, leaving him in a better position than the others. He gets up nervously and crawls back into the library after a moment and begins fixing the wires that had gotten jumbled up in the panic. In the distance, he hears the sound of a large chunk of wood get thrown down, followed by a gruff yell as David unfortunately probably fails to dodge a second hatchet. Dwight swallows hard and narrowly avoids blowing the generator up again.

There’s no sign of Meg coming to help him, but he tells himself that’s a good thing, since she’s the one with the medkit and can probably better help David. He thinks of the terrifying image of David up on a hook in the menacing nearby basement—something he’s thankfully only seen once before—and frowns deeply. It’s never enjoyable to have to see someone’s impalement scars heal over during the cleansing, but the idea of it being David causes Dwight’s stomach to turn in strange ways. The guy has enough scars, he doesn’t need any more.

These thoughts distract him, but thankfully his idle mind performs moderately at repairing the gen, and he has it up and fully running just a couple of short minutes after David’s scream. He hasn’t heard anything else yet, which is a good sign that he might’ve managed to get away, but now he needs to scoot before the Huntress returns.

He pushes into the center of the hospital, knowing that a generator is always nearby and being fueled by a little bravery in knowing that the basement lurks elsewhere. When he does, his head tingles again and he realizes that all three of his companions are above him, hiding on the second floor, and he goes quickly up the stairs to join them.

Meg is just finishing bandaging David’s shoulder when he makes it up to them. “Good, good,” Meg says, eyeing Dwight. “We’re back together at least. He’s fine, too.”

Dwight clasps David’s hand to help him up, which he accepts. A smile passes between them. “Thanks for shoving me through that window.”

“Any time,” David says, tussling Dwight’s hair. Nea gives Meg an interested glance, which gets returned. “Saw you got that gen done. Two more?”

“Was gonna try and push the one below us, but I don’t know if that’s a good idea now that she’s back hunting for us.”

“Let’s rush it,” Nea says, holding up her toolbox. “We’ve still got this, and Dwight looks extra motivational tonight.” She smirks, and Dwight sees a stare pass between her and Meg, then towards David. He doesn’t acknowledge it.

After a short moment, David and Meg both nod at Dwight, who shrugs, and the four of them head back downstairs and immediately begin working like mad on the generator amidst the crackling of the static tv screens that intermittently show that mad doctor’s face.

With all four of them working, it gets done in less than a minute, but they immediately draw the attention of the Huntress and the humming begins again as they scoot out into the patient rooms and the hallway. They find a generator somewhat close to an exit on the other side of the hospital from where Dwight began and begin to work on it.

Mere moments pass before the humming grows louder, and then the heartbeat enters their heads once more. The group starts to sneak away from the generator, but Dwight lingers for too long and sees the Huntress round the corner right as he enters her direct eyeline.

Not wanting to lead her right to his friends, he instead starts sprinting further down the hallway, one hatchet flying by his head immediately. Only seconds later, a second one hits its mark and slices deeply into the back of his left leg, fueling him onward in pain. He leads her desperately around the nearby rooms for several moments, managing to slam a large pallet down on her hands right as she takes a deadly swing at him, knocking the broad axe out of her grasp for a moment and giving him the opportunity to escape.

He isn’t so lucky for long though, and soon he finds himself running back towards the hallway where the generator was being worked on, hoping that his friends were brave enough to continue working on it. He doesn’t find out though, as a large swing from the broad axe suddenly knocks the wind out of him as it cuts straight into his back, toppling him over.

In fear, he turns around to face the Huntress, menacingly towering over him and holding her axe above her head, preparing to hit him again even when already down. Consumed by bloodlust, she seems to want him dead, and Dwight yells out in terror.

As the axe swing comes down though, David suddenly dashes out from a nearby room and throws himself over Dwight, taking the brutal hit right to his back and causing him to scream in anguish, mouth right next to Dwight’s face. His breathing gets ragged instantly, and Dwight feels mortified at how foolish that was, David now at the Huntress’ mercy as well.

She prepares another swing, this time intent on delivering some sort of horrible blow to David, when Meg screams “David! Go!” as the last wire of the nearby generator gets completed.

Suddenly full of adrenaline, David manages to kick the Huntress’ leg out from underneath her, stumbling her and making her miss her swing entirely. He springs up with the ferocity of his former rugby days fueling him, managing to scoop up Dwight in his arms as well and suddenly booking it down the hall.

Nea has managed to yank open the exit gate by the time they get there, Meg and the Huntress right on their heels, and she does, in fact, smack a final hatchet right out of the air with her toolbox, the four of them escaping back into the woods as the terrible wall of the Entity spares them from pursuit by the furious Huntress.

//

“You saved me,” Dwight says, later that night, bandaging the deep cut on David’s back. “You should let me cleanse that.”

Dwight, as usual, had returned to the campfire completely lacking the similar gash that he had taken from the broad axe. David had steadfastly refused a cleansing ritual, and had gone to tough out his pain on the farthest log in the clearing.

“No,” David says for what must be the fourth or fifth time. “It’s not worth yer energy. It’ll heal fine.”

“It’ll leave a scar if you don’t let me cleanse it,” Dwight says harshly, frowning deeply at David.

“So what?”

“You don’t need any more scars,” Dwight voices his thought from during the trial.

David laughs a deep, hearty laugh, and then grabs Dwight’s wrist and pulls him onto the log next to him. He gives him a deep, fond look right in the eyes. “I don’t care. I want this one.”

“Why the hell would you—”

“It’s the first one I got protectin’ you,” David interrupts, slinging one arm around Dwight’s neck and keeping him close. “Gotta honor somethin’ like that.”

Dwight’s heart pounds in his chest even more rapidly than it does when he’s being ruthlessly pursued by a killer. He scoots even closer into David’s side, minimizing the distance between them. The arm around his neck encourages it, and so Dwight turns his head so that his mouth is inches from David’s.

“I wanna kiss you,” Dwight fumbles out, full of realization, voice so awkward and tense that it makes his own face flush red in embarrassment rather than flattery, and he makes to pull away from David immediately, only for his arm to keep him there.

“I could let you do that,” David whispers back, moving his face so that their cheeks touch and his mouth is right up against Dwight’s right ear. “But I was gonna kiss you first.”

Dwight swallows his gasp and the lump in his throat, but his mouth is still dry when he manages a whisper: “Then do it.”

“That a challenge?” And, fuck, Dwight can barely stand the dirty gleam in David’s eyes; he wants nothing less than to be toyed with and yet nothing more than for David to do this exactly how he wants to. Deliberate and teasing as necessary.

David tilts his head down slightly when Dwight doesn’t respond, beginning to press his mouth against Dwight’s jawline and kissing him, adding in small bites when they feel right. He gets encouragement from Dwight’s small noises and moves even more south, kissing and biting Dwight’s neck now with enough force that’ll leave marks.

Getting hickeys seems like fair trade for the deep axe scar that David will carry in his back for the rest of time eternal.

Dwight is snapped back into focus when he feels them shift together. He hadn’t even realized that he had started slumping back, letting David pin him to the log, until the kisses stopped and David pulls him back up next to him, wrapping a muscled arm around the small of his back and holding Dwight against his side.

“They were watching,” David says, and it takes Dwight several moments to tear his gaze away from David’s perfect face to look back towards the campfire and see Meg and Nea giggling slightly, trying and failing to be subtle about glancing at them. “I don’t give a shit, but…” he trails off.

“Yeah,” Dwight whispers. “Maybe we should come back to this later, when we can get--” he stammers for a moment, blushing-- “some more privacy.”

“I’m holdin’ you to that.”

“You can hold me to anything you like now,” Dwight says, astounded at how smoothly he gets it out, and the lights that go on in David’s eyes are worth everything to him.

//

The girls--fuck, actually,  _ everybody _ \--had a betting pool on which of them were going to kiss the other first.

Everyone but Claudette had bet on David, and so Dwight felt almost sorrowful as he watches her hand over multiple high-value medkits with a good-natured smile on her face. He knows that it doesn’t actually mean much. They all share everything here. But it’s the act itself that makes him feel bad, and so he has to ask her why she took the bet.

“You’re brave enough to do the cleansings,” she laughs. “I thought you might be brave enough to kiss David. He doesn’t seem too scary.” She’s teasing him, he knows, and his face flushes fully, getting another laugh out of her. “He’s looking for you, by the way.”

Dwight turns around to look thirty feet away at the campfire, where he knows David is once again playing cards with the usual group. They’ve barely been disconnected from the hip all day, let alone out of each other’s eyesight, but Dwight can tell that Claudette’s right from the way he sees David fidget slightly and glance over at him every so often. He watches for a few moments until David stares right at him and cocks an eyebrow, as if asking what the hell Dwight’s doing so far away.

He walks over to the stump that they all play cards on and takes a seat between David and Ace. Ace offers him a fistbump, but also seems to angle himself away so that Dwight can’t see his cards, which makes Dwight feel bad. They don’t play for anything, but he’s still not about to make David look like he’s cheating. He scoots around David and sits so that their backs are touching instead, leaving him staring at the campfire. 

Nea and Meg swoop by suddenly and sit on the log between him and the campfire, facing him with big grins, removing all peace from the moment. “How’s romance?” Meg asks, completely ignoring the fact that David is directly behind him.

“Asking for my sake or yours?” He asks back, and he both hears and feels David’s short exhale when he chuckles. 

Meg looks completely unperturbed by the comment, suddenly distracted by tying her hair into a ponytail. “We were just wondering. It’s lonely here, even amongst friends.” It’s a serious statement, but Dwight can’t quite read the meaning behind it.

“Being surrounded by other people doesn’t mean this place isn’t hell,” Nea adds, as if he needed the reminder. He didn’t. “Unless, you know, you manage to find a whole lot of joy in it.”

Dwight nods. He looks up at the constant moon that hangs in the sky. “I guess I’d say things are somehow looking brighter.”

“I fold,” David says with an almost unknown softness, pressing his back against Dwight’s momentarily so he knows he’s about to stand. “Let’s take a walk,” he suggests, helping Dwight to his feet and then not letting go of his hand.

The girls giggle behind them, but Dwight is full of joy and nothing else.

//

David takes them back to the small clearing he showed Dwight the day before, holding his hand the entire way once again.

“We were supposed to bring the others here,” Dwight says, half-teasing David and half-remembering that they still have to figure out if there’s a way home. Or home-adjacent. Out of the woods.

“Tomorrow,” he says, sitting and pulling Dwight in front of him, wrapping him in his arms and kissing his neck. Tomorrow could be minutes or eons away for all they knew, but Dwight understands what David meant. There had been no cleansing ritual tonight. Everyone returned safely. This was one of Dwight’s few chances to rest, and if he wanted to take it, David was here to help him.

Dwight lets himself relax into David’s embrace, leaning against his chest and enjoying having the back of his neck kissed. It’s peaceful, almost, which feels somewhat wrong considering where they are and what their lives are like now.

“David,” Dwight says suddenly, feeling anxiety swell up in the pit of his stomach, “what if we really can’t get out of here alive? Or worse, what if only some of us can?” He begins to turn out of the embrace to face David.

But David grips his hand tight and wraps the other around Dwight’s neck, pulling him into a deep kiss. The scratchiness of David’s beard causes a nice distracting sensation, and Dwight feels the impending vertigo die down. “We’ll make it eventually,” David says as he breaks the kiss and gently begins leaning Dwight backwards until he’s lying down with David on top of him. “No point in thinkin’ otherwise.”

A small whimper catches at the back of Dwight’s throat, but David kisses him again and quiets it. Dwight unconsciously grinds upwards into David’s thigh and feels a small grunt of satisfaction pass through their kiss. David trails one hand down Dwight’s shirt and plays with the hem of the fabric for a moment before slipping it under and thumbing at Dwight’s abdomen.

“Gentle,” Dwight whispers when they break the kiss for a moment, surprise obviously coloring his voice. 

David smirks at him and Dwight feels himself melt under the stare. “I can be as rough as you want it.” He squeezes Dwight’s side for a moment, not painfully but just to apply pressure, as if proving himself, and then immediately goes back to the soothing motion he was doing before.

“We’ll see,” Dwight says, suddenly feeling brave enough to tug at the hems of David’s shirt too and start pulling it up. David removes his hand from under Dwight’s shirt so that he can get his own shirt off and then goes right back. 

Dwight’s seen David shirtless before (and recently, considering the axe wound), and he finds that his desire to run his hands all over him has now grown to desperation. David seems to like it, if the way he kisses him while Dwight grabs at his shoulder blades is any indication. “It’s so good to have you touch me,” David confirms, and Dwight also realizes that he’s beginning to feel David growing hard against his thigh. He swallows in worry for a second before another kiss snaps him out of it, and he realizes with a strange calm that he’s already rock hard against David’s own thigh. This is good, not embarrassing.

The hand rubbing at his side slips further under him and moves slightly up and down his spine. Dwight becomes very conscious of the shirt he’s still wearing. “How much do you wanna do?” David asks, as if reading his mind, looking for the next step.

“Take it off and find out,” Dwight says with surprising confidence, and David needs no more instruction before adeptly gliding Dwight’s shirt straight off his back with ease, as few gaps in their kissing as necessary.

Dwight can tell that David’s still focused on their kiss, his tongue slipping around in Dwight’s mouth with ambition, but he also seems just as desperate as Dwight was to run his hands all over his body. He shouldn’t be surprised that David acts like such an adept lover, and it chills him to the core to feel David’s calloused hands sweep under his arms and explore everything they can touch.

“You think your wound will hurt if you lie on your back?” Dwight asks suddenly, an idea coming into his mind and taking root completely.

David grins above him. “You gonna flip me?” It’s almost a taunt, but it’s tinged with interest.

“I was thinking I could suck your cock,” Dwight says, and he immediately relishes the face that David makes, brain temporarily shorting out. After a moment, both desire and concern somehow burn in David’s eyes, like he doesn’t know what question to ask next.

“Are you sure?” He says eventually. “We have--” forever, maybe-- “the opportunity to take it slow.”

“And we have the opportunity to get some right now,” Dwight counters, not wanting to dwell on the implications of David’s point. “If you want. I won’t rush you.”

There’s a slight teasing to his voice, and he knows David catches it.

“Fuck, babe,” David groans, kissing Dwight deeply again, both of their bodies so incredibly warm. David rolls over slowly after a moment, wincing slightly when he gets fully on his back but then immediately pulling Dwight on top of him and kissing him again. “You already know how to get everything you could ever want out of me.”

“That goes both ways,” Dwight says as he begins shifting down, kissing David’s chest along the way. “You’re the one about to get a blowjob, after all.”

“Yeah, and afterward I’m gonna give you the best tug of your life,” comes back at him, and Dwight has to stifle his laugh against David’s sweatpants. 

He doesn’t want to hesitate too long on this and concern David, so he tugs the pants and underwear low and David tilts upwards so that they can go all the way down to his knees. His cock stands upright, just inches from Dwight’s face. He’s uncut, so Dwight gently pulls the foreskin back and spits in his hand to lubricate it a little bit. David’s hot to the touch and it fills Dwight with such joy to know that David is so undeniably aroused by him.

Dwight uses his left hand to fondle David’s balls a little and puts his right at the base of his dick, and then without much more thought than that he’s putting David’s cock in his mouth and sliding up and down with both his mouth and hand. David immediately begins to groan and he somehow swells even more inside of Dwight. It’s been some time--or maybe not, but it feels like ages--since he’s needed to suppress his gag reflex, but he finds himself easing most of the way down David’s dick through sheer power of will.

He feels it press into the back of his throat and wishes he was at a better angle so that he could try and take all of it, but David seems insanely pleased regardless, so they can try that another time. Having found as far as he’s likely to take it, Dwight starts blowing David with big movements, sending the most sensations through his partner as his dick goes from almost untouched to completely inside Dwight’s mouth multiple times in quick succession. Dwight never pulls off of David entirely, leaving the touch of his lips on the head of David’s cock and tasting the warning signs of orgasm on him. 

David’s precum doesn’t taste like much of anything, considering they don’t really eat these days, but there’s something about it that feels so incredibly charged with  _ David _ that makes Dwight desperate to give him an orgasm so he can take it all.

“Dwight,” David gasps, and Dwight stops for a moment, mouth still around his dick, to look up. The look on David’s face isn’t a sign of immediate release, but it’s a warning that he’s getting close enough that Dwight should pull off if he doesn’t want David’s load in his mouth. But he does, so Dwight goes most of the way down on David again and has to suppress a choking sound when David bucks slightly up into him in pleasure.

David’s breathing goes pretty ragged and he starts slowly fucking Dwight’s face, keeping pace with the other boy’s movements up and down his cock. This lasts all of thirty seconds before David emits a staggering groan and Dwight feels his cock swell with his orgasm and goes as far down on him as he can, David’s cum shooting into the back of his throat and giving him no choice but to swallow it.

Dwight gives him a moment to go through the bliss of the orgasm and then slowly pulls off and moves back up alongside David, kissing him deeply, David not seeming to mind in the slightest that some of his cum is still in Dwight’s mouth. They kiss hungrily, David desperate to encourage Dwight for a job well done, and Dwight so full of arousal that he’s surprised he hasn’t just shot his load in his pants already.

David stays true to form and, after a few moments of enjoying the kiss, pulls Dwight’s pants down below his hips, revealing his cock, desperately springing free. He winks at Dwight and licks the palm of his right hand so slowly that it almost drives Dwight to the edge just watching, but after a painful moment he feels David’s hand grip the top of his dick and start slowly working up and down it. 

Whenever David goes to the bottom of Dwight’s dick, he takes a moment to fondle his balls with his fingers, causing Dwight to moan deeply into their kiss. The moaning turns into something closer to panting after just a minute of David’s hand on his dick. He was already turned on all the way by getting David’s dick in his mouth, and there’s very little left of Dwight resisting release, trying to make the moment last just a little longer.

He comes hard, shooting mostly on one of his thighs, but he spills all over David’s hand as well, which results in a small laugh into their kiss when Dwight tries to apologize. 

“We should clean up,” he says when the rush fades away, and looks around for his shirt and momentarily regrets that they have nothing else to use. “We can use my shirt, it should be okay.”

“Nah,” David says, smirk and dirty gleam in his eyes again. He starts licking Dwight’s cum off of his own hand, causing Dwight’s cock to throb again in excitement, and then pushes Dwight down gently into a prone position so that he can work on what spilled on his thigh as well. He uses his mouth to clean the head of Dwight’s cock too, and Dwight thinks he might have a second orgasm just from the taste of things to come, if  _ that’s _ what having David’s mouth around his dick feels like. “Much easier like that.”

“You’re a real problem solver,” Dwight says, and David laughs again. He uses his clean hand to tussle Dwight’s hair, just as he had done inside the hospital trial. 

Dwight blushes, so David kisses him again.

//

They’re back at the campfire, later that evening, fending off prying questions from Meg and Nea, who are torturous in their inquisition.

“You went into the forest together,  _ again _ ,” Meg says in reply to Dwight’s adamant stance that they did nothing out of line whatsoever. “If that doesn’t scream ‘looking for privacy because we want to do more than make out,’ what does?”

“Didn’t realize you were big fans,” David says, voice stern but obviously faking it. “Would’ve sold front row tickets.”

Nea makes a gagging noise and pinches her nose. “No thanks, wouldn’t want to be in the splash zone.” And then she and Meg both almost fall off the log with how hard they laugh.

David wraps an arm around Dwight while they’re distracted. “They’re jealous,” he whispers, bringing a smile to Dwight’s face. “Of me, for havin’ you, I mean.”

“Turning on the charm after you’ve already had your way with me, huh?”

“Gotta make sure you’ll let me stick around,” David teases. “Can’t have you realize what a bastard your boyfriend is.”

Dwight laughs, bringing Meg and Nea back into the conversation. “Something funny?”

“Yeah, you two,” David cuts in. “Schoolgirls, both of ya. Actin’ like it’s not a damn miracle that Dwight likes my busted mug. You ever been this lucky?”

Meg smiles brightly at David’s words, winking at Dwight. Nea launches into some story about the first girl she went tagging with, complete with wild hand motions and the sound effects of a spraypaint can.

Dwight loses track of the conversation at he gazes into the campfire, hearing the seemingly faraway voices of David, Meg, and Nea continue to talk but not making any of the words out. He feels David laugh next to him.

He is warm all over, from more than just the campfire.

Staring into it consumes him for a time, and for his eyes only the light of the campfire seems to change into the blinding white of the cleansing rituals. He peers into it.

He sees the group gathered around the campfire. There are a few faces there he doesn’t recognize. More strangers come to the party. But it looks like, for once, everyone is fighting the good fight and staying positive. He sees a smile gracing even Bill’s face.

He sees Ace finding a suit jacket lost in the woods beyond the campfire and donning it immediately, going around the campfire and pretending to be some hotshot officiating weddings between random people. Dwight and David are first up, of course.

He sees Nea walking back from a trial with one of the Huntress’ hatchets in her hands. The first of the killers’ belongings to ever return to the campfire. Over time, she cuts down one of the nearby trees with it and builds a makeshift fort. It seems cathartic for everyone to watch her do it.

He sees himself performing the cleansing ritual over and over again, but he doesn’t feel drained doing so. There seems to be a rotation of either David or Claudette next to him, holding a cold compress to his forehead. Luckily, it seems like one of them always manages to stay safe.

He sees David, shirtless, in the clearing they explored together; sees himself touching him, the scar on his back from the axe seemingly healing. He can’t imagine how it would, seeing as David already left it uncleansed for so long that it’s leaving a lasting scar, but--

Dwight understands what the campfire is showing him.

He is suddenly full of hope.

He snaps back into reality with a small start, David squeezing him slightly with the arm wrapped around his back, keeping him close.

David asks him if he’s okay and kisses his jaw steadily, as a comfort.

Dwight says yes, and he knows it’s true. Salvation is coming. Slowly, but surely, they’re getting better at surviving in the woods. 

They’re getting out of here.


End file.
